Flying wide

I’m at CDG in Paris, about to depart for LHR in London, and the AirFrance plane I’ll be flying in is one of the new Airbus A380s. The plane was over-sold, so there are no windows — a low-percentage shot anyway with a plane that flies 550 or so people at a time. Got a middle in row 91 (of 94), on the upper deck.

The person at the ticket counter said they like to fly these short-hauls so the pilots “get practice.”

Well, we know they work in theory, no?

[Later…] Got in fine. The plane leaves late, but arrives on time. It’s like flying in a building. Although I missed my customary window seat, I did get to enjoy three different views, from three cameras: one underneath, one on the nose, and one looking forward from the tail. (That one produced the picture above, on approach to London.) Also had a fun conversation with a gentleman from the Isle of Man — a place about which I learned a good deal in a short time, with the help of interactive maps on the seat-back display in front of me.

Since then I’ve been on three trains, finally arriving in Suffolk for meetings that will run the next four days.